Communication devices such as cellular telephones, personal digital assistants (PDAs), and the like provide one or more applications that may be implemented on behalf of the user. For example, communication devices may employ a voice call application that allows the user to place a voice telephone call to remote parties. As other examples, communication devices may employ text messaging applications, web browsing applications, gaming applications, virtual private networking, terminal services, and so forth.
Each of these various applications being provided may have constraints that dictate how well the application will function and whether it will function at all. For example, a voice call application may be considered to perform best when transmission errors are minimized at the expense of data throughput so that re-tries of data transmissions are seldom necessary. As another example, text messaging may be considered to perform best when the connection is the least expensive, at the expense of data throughput and transmission errors. As another example, web browsing may be considered to perform best when data throughput is at its highest, at the expense of cost for the connection.
Communication devices that implement these applications make use of whatever service quality is available at a given time from the communication network to which the communication device is currently registered. This current communication network is typically the native communication network for the device, i.e., the network operated by the entity through which the user has purchased communication service. However, where the native communication network is unavailable due to a lack of signal strength, then the current communication network through which the communication device attempts to communicate for the application may be a roaming network operated by an entity that has a roaming agreement in place with the entity that operates the native network. In either case, the communication device is limited by what level of service that current network provides.